“It all started with a band of rebels who wanted to help a farmboy follow his dream. Three decades later, the Star Wars empire has grown into one the most fertile incubators of talent in the worlds of movies (Lucasfilm), visual effects (Industrial Light & Magic), sound (Skywalker Sound), and videogames (Lucasarts).” By way of my sis-in-law Lotta, How Star Wars Changed the World. Some of the links are tenuous (Barry Levinson?), others aren’t all that flattering (Chris Columbus)…still, worth a look-see.
Category: Gaming
Double Spectre.
In the third installment of Watchmen viral fun, we get to venture into the Gunga Diner and try out an 8-bit, Veidt-manufactured Minutemen arcade game. (It’s basically Double Dragon or Kung-Fu Master, except with Hollis Mason, Sally Jupiter, and Moloch.) Some nice touches in here — note the poster for Rolf Mueller‘s circus show. And the date of the game — 1977, a bit early for this sort of sidescroller — might suggest the accelerating influence of Dr. Manhattan…
A Bottle of Jack.
Is this a dagger which I see before me? No, actually that’s a dagger rogue. A christmas present from my brother and sister-in-law which arrived just the other day, this stealthy fellow in the glass case — a lvl 80 undead rogue, for the non-WoW inclined — is a 3-D sculpture (or “rapid prototype,” to be more exact) of my (main) World of Warcraft alter-ego, courtesy of the folks at FigurePrints. (I chose the name JackLowry from here (Jack) and here (Lowry) — everyone on-server usually assumes it’s a Bad Boys reference. Fine by me.)
Apparently, obtaining a FigurePrint is rather difficult at the moment — due to high demand, you have to win a lottery for the privilege of buying one. I can see why. It’s a pretty cool and detailed little sculpture, and it’s just the perfect size to make for some tastefully nerdy desk flair in your home or office (and/or to use as a dogwhistle to smoke out your WoW-playing colleagues and co-workers.)
You can get a sense of the size of the statue from the Jack-and-Coke pic below, and, as you can see, he’s already playing nice with President Obama (whom, unlike Jack here, I’ll liberate from the packaging someday.)
Crom, Rahm, Zom, (Info)com.
Some fun links by way of other quality blogs:
I found this exchange particularly funny: “Gates told reporters he may have gotten off on the wrong foot with the new president, citing an occasion when Obama asked him what he knew about 1984’s Secret Wars, a 12-issue limited Marvel release. Gates then handed a visibly confused Obama 1,400 classified pages on covert CIA operations in El Salvador. Later, the defense secretary attempted to find common ground with Obama by making casual references to the comic book Spawn. But the 44th president reportedly brushed him off with an abrupt laugh, saying, ‘no one in [his] administration likes Spawn.‘”
Well, sorry to hear of the dilemma, Mr. President. Perhaps (*cough cough*) hiring some progressive-minded fanboys (fanboy-minded progressives?) might’ve alleviated the situation…
Delivered from the Blast.
The clock is ticking: As expected, Fox and WB have settled their dispute over Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, thus clearing the way for the March 6 release. “Fox…will emerge with an upfront cash payment that sources pegged between $5 million and $10 million…More importantly, Fox will get a gross participation in “Watchmen” that scales between 5% and 8.5%, depending on the film’s worldwide revenues. Fox also participates as a gross player in any sequels and spinoffs, sources said.“
Sequels and spinoffs? I don’t think so…how awful would those be? Then again, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around the forthcoming prequelish Watchmen: The End is Nigh Double Dragon game and, as the graphic novel predicted, the inevitable Watchmen action figures. (Archie and Bubastis sold separately.)
Americans, Living Large.
“Numbers posted by the National Center for Health Statistics show that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, compared to 32.7 percent who are overweight…In the 1988-1994 surveys, 33 percent of Americans were overweight, 22.9 percent were obese and 2.9 percent were morbidly obese. The numbers have edged up steadily since.” In dire news on the national health front, we Americans are fatter than ever. Perhaps it’s time to dole out Wii Fits as part of the stimulus package? The health care savings might actually make it worthwhile.
Gleaming the Cube.
How to Solve a Rubik’s Cube. This is the best of the learning sites I could find while trying to pick up this skill set over the past few days. (I’ve fiddled with ’em a few times over the years, and seeing one in Let the Right One In recently re-piqued my interest.) Apparently, there are faster ways to go about it, and one can also speed up “solving the cross” with a good deal of practice, but I really just wanted to learn how to finish one of the durned things.
I have to admit, tho’, it would be kinda cool to become as dexterous as Will Smith in the art of cubism.
Do Not Collect $200 Million.
A bold, uncompromising vision of the not-too-distant future, a stark expose of the greed and corruption that ignited the credit collapse…or a weird cash-in by a director looking to pay some bills? Word is Ridley Scott will direct Monopoly for Warner Brothers, based on the ever-popular, family-destroying board game, “with an eye toward giving it a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic ‘Blade Runner.” (It’s unclear as of yet what this does to Joe Haldeman’s Forever War.) Um…ok.
By the way, for a solid laugh or three, check out the AICN feed about the news, where wry movie people are having good fun eviscerating the project, and imagining its competitors. I particularly liked “M. Night Shyamalan’s BALDERDASH — You’ll never guess what happens!” and “David Cronenerg’s DON’T BREAK THE ICE, with Christopher Walken. In 2011, the ice…is gonna break!” (Although, as someone else noted, “Mr. Potato Head” is definitely a better Cronenberg fit.)
I’ll see you on the fjord.
Update: [Note: If you’re not among the WoW-inclined, just skip over this paragraph.] Ding 80, as of Sunday evening during the Obama 60 Minutes. So far, I’ve been extremely impressed with the art direction of Northrend, as well as the imagination put into some of the quests. (Lots of fun nods throughout too — See, for example, the Lost hatch in Sholazar Basin, the Time Bandits quest in Zul’Drak, or the time-travel paradox from Infocom’s old Sorcerer game in Dragonblight.) That being said, I am slightly afraid they’ve made the game too easy to allow more (re: bad) players to access end-game content. I guess we’ll soon find out…
The Curse of Monkey Nation.
By way of a high-school friend, Palin as President. As a big fan of Sam and Max and Monkey Island-type games, I for one am ecstatic to see pixel-hunting problem-solving now being applied to our lefty agitprop. (It reminds me of this still-great Dubya Infocom adventure.)